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Speaker 1: We seem to be in a war against science and research,

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which is causing anxiety among us old geezers, grateful for

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anti seizure meds that guard against us suddenly shaking uncontrollably

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on the street corner and strangers having to remember first

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aid from four AH to keep us from strangling on

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a hot argon. When we're not reading about that, we

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see news of low frequency seismic waves that can travel

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for hundreds of miles underground and cause tall brick buildings

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to crash to the ground, which is disturbing to us

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in Manhattan. And then there's news of mister and missus J. D. Vance,

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who announced their trip to Greenland to see the dog

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sled races, only to be told nobody invited you. So

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they flew to the US military base at Patufik for

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three hours, and mister Vance announced that Greenland needed American

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defense whether it wanted it or not. He did not

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change the name of the area to Pitifilm. However, interesting

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time we live in and Wisconsin elected a Supreme Court

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judge other than the one Elon Musk had favored, and

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offered large sums of money to voters. But the crucial

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news is that spring is coming. The baseball season has begun,

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and I will wend my way to centerfield and get

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a broad view of the action. And I will do

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the last big outdoor prairie home companion of my life

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at Tanglewood on June twenty first, and then, unless RFK

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Junior allows dementia research to proceed, I will retire to

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shady acres and play parcheesy. I'm enjoying being eighty two

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more than I thought I would when I was your age.

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I thought I'd be cranky and irritable, but I'm not.

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I imagined that if the U. S. Government canceled research contracts

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for institutions that used certain terms, such as Gulf of

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Mexico instead of Gulf of America, the correct term, that

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I would be upset about it. I'm not. I simply

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find it of interest and I move on. If the

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Justice Department told me you cannot cast scorn upon an

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elected government official, I would say, the idiot doesn't even

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know how to punctuate his first two initial I believe

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I know right from wrong, and I think about it

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on a daily basis, and also intensely. On Sunday morning,

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shortly before eleven depending how long the sermon goes. The

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sermon itself is sinful in that it falls short of perfection.

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And sometimes the attempt of woman or man to approach

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God in words is so inadequate that it's best to

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tune out. And I do, And sometimes I write a

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limerick in the bulletin. Was Donald J. Trump a recruit

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in the Russian's quest for a route in to the

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Oval Office by way of a novice? Trump poopoos it,

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pooh putin. But I sit up straight during confession, and

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I am disappointed by the brevity of the Anglican liturgy,

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spoken briskly in unison, which would be sufficient for a

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small child, but a man my age needs more time.

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I envy the Catholics who can come in on Saturday

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and find a priest in a booth, his ear to

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a little window, waiting for me to recite the entire

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epic account of my sins. I was a boss for

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many years, and I committed sins of careless business and arrogance,

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and stifled promising talents. And I was a pitiful parent

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and miserable mate. And my memory is full of downright

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dumb things, not so much hell raising as having been

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an outstanding disappointment, sloughing off from the writing and offering

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inferior goods to a radio audience. And I count on

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confession to put the mounds and hillocks of trash behind

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me and start anew And by God, it works, it

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really does. I walk home along Amsterdam Avenue and I

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look forward to the wind. My fundamentalist upbringing trains the

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memory to be accusatory. But the grandeur of the acolytes

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walking tall and proud, the majestic woman swinging the censure,

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the vestments and candles, the stateliness of the King James

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readings all work to stifle my peasant superstitions. I leave

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the sanctuary calmed and renewed, honest to God, at least

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for a while. And often I skip coffee hour because

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I don't want to hear about the same stuff in

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the first paragraph. All the way home along Amsterdam, I

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feel it doesn't matter. I don't know about your church,

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but in ours, we don't pray for stupidity, cruelty and

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supercilious pride and smug disdain. I see dads pushing tiny

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kids and strollers, and a mom following with a toddler,

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and I pray for each of them as they pass me,